In the light of an emphasis on extending access to competent sexual health services for two Key Population groupings, namely men who have sex with men (MSM) and sex workers (SW), the transgender population has generally been overlooked within the public health sector. This applies equally to sexual health-related research on Key Populations where transgender people have often been ignored; where they have been included, they have frequently been incorporated as being either MSM or SWs.

Importantly, transgender people experience their own set of unique barriers to accessing essential health services. These include transphobia and trans-prejudice, stigma and discrimination, and a pervasive lack of understanding and insight into their health needs among health professionals.

It is within this context that we welcome you to this training material.

This training content is intended to be preceded by another training course developed by the Anova Health Institute, Key Populations Diversity Training. Being exposed to this combined content has been designed, firstly, to facilitate the development of insight into various stereotypes and prejudices regarding members of Key Populations, including transgender people. Secondly, this current course will develop health workers’ knowledge regarding the rendering of competent health services specifically for transgender people.

We acknowledge the dedicated hard work of Dr Anastasia Tomson who developed this content on our behalf. It was a pleasure working with her throughout the process and we benefited greatly from her significant insights. We also acknowledge and thank Professor Roy Shires of the Endocrinology Department of the University of the Witwatersrand, and psychiatrist Dr Greg Jonnson for undertaking a review of elements of this training manual. We extend appreciation to Jill Schlachter who edited and structured this course content, and Anthony Dalton for the layout. The entire process was driven and coordinated by Glenn de Swardt.

Finally, we thank our donors for their support and confidence in us to undertake training of health workers on the provision of services to transgender people, and we express our sincere appreciation to the Department of Health for their generous partnership.

To download the Transgender Health Training manuals click on the links below: